I am re-reading Sun Tzu's The Art of War because I find it helpful to review basic strategic and tactical guidelines every so often. I am not a war-monger or even all that fond of war as a practice, but I understand its place in society and recognize that if it is going to be a part of life, it will be advantageous to be on the winning side as much as possible. Besides, it is a short book and condenses its teachings into concise statements.

My thinking is that there are three types of people: Those who have not read the book, those who have read it but did not understand it well enough to practice its teachings, and those who read and understand it. I read The Art of War for the first time when I was in the Air Force, because it just seemed like a logical thing to do. It ought to be required reading for everyone in the military, but most especially the military leadership. It should also be read and studied by civilian leaders who make military decisions.

And so I am absolutely certain, having followed the prosecution of the war in Iraq, that the key players of the Bush administration responsible for the Iraq War have either not read The Art of War or simply did not understand it, or, even worse, chose not to follow the basic concepts presented therein.

I will now elucidate.

I will skip the theory and esoterica about Tao in Chapter 1 and skip straight to Chapter 2, which is entitled "Waging War." This is what it says: "When employing [the army] in battle, a victory that is long in coming will blunt their weapons and dampen their ardor." It also says this: "If you expose the army to a prolonged campaign, the state's resources will be inadequate." And it later says this: "No country has ever profited from protracted warfare." The chapter concludes with this: "Thus the army values being victorious; it does not value prolonged warfare."

So basically, even in antiquity warfare wisdom held that long drawn-out wars are bad. Even in my lifetime, seeing what a mess Vietnam was, I know that wars need to be fought quickly and won decisively. Sun Tzu provides guidance on that as well, but for now let's concentrate on the biggest lesson from Chpater 2 of an incredible short book which apparently no one in the Bush administration ever bothered to read. NO COUNTRY HAS EVER PROFITED FROM PROTRACTED WARFARE.

Why has America's leadership not followed this obvious rule? The answer to that, most likely, also comes from Chapter 2: "Those who do not thoroughly comprehend the dangers inherent in employing the army are incapable of truly knowing the potential advantages of military actions."

If that does not describe the Bush administration, I don't know what does.